Policy Options and the U.S. Withdrawal from Iraq: An Analysis of the Way Ahead

Abstract

Of all the seriously daunting and immediate international problems facing the newly elected U.S. President, none is more important to get his arms around quickly than the situation in Iraq. The picture is a little distorted as President Obama takes over, due to the supposed certitudes of the recently signed Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA); however, there are crucial decisions to be made, and made quickly, by the incoming American leadership. In this paper, we explore the options available to the new President, discuss how events in Iraq are likely to affect regional U.S. interests in the Middle East, and suggest measures that might be taken to mitigate a highly dangerous and potentially very negative situation for the new Chief Executive. The new administration has not been dealt a good hand in the Middle East generally, but it is not a game the United States can afford to sit out.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA497267

Entities

People

  • Thomas Bowditch

Organizations

  • Chief of Naval Operations

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Civil War
  • Combat Forces
  • Congress
  • Employment
  • Foreign Relations
  • Governments
  • Law
  • National Governments
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Political Systems
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • United States
  • Urban Areas
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Educational Psychology
  • International Relations and European Studies
  • Strategic Security Studies